Hall Students To Explore West Hartford Center Jobs Through Junior Achievement 'Career Walk'

WEST HARTFORD — Hall High School students will get a crash course in some potential careers at their fingertips during the first Junior Achievement Career Walk next month.

The program, put on by Junior Achievement of Southwest New England, BlumShapiro and PBI Financial Group, will bring students through several businesses in West Hartford Center, exposing them to the variety of jobs in the community.

Two groups of 10 students will visit BlumShapiro, PBI, Charles Schwab, Farmington Bank, Fathom, The Fremont Group, lululemon athletica, Max's Oyster Bar and Munson's Chocolates for 40 minutes each on May 14. Students will learn about the work that is done there and what employers are looking for in their employees, according to a summary of the program.

Tom DeVitto, chief marketing officer at BlumShapiro and a member of the Junior Achievement board, said the idea arose over coffee in West Hartford Center.

"We were really trying to think of innovative ways of getting kids real life experience of how businesses actually work," he said. "A big part of what we do is financial literacy, work readiness and entrepreneurship."

Junior Achievement also was looking for ways to involve smaller businesses in its programs, he said.

DeVitto and Jason Gutcheon, a partner at PBI and another board member, decided that bringing young people into where they work — West Hartford Center — would be great because of the variety of businesses there, Junior Achievement President Lou Golden said.

"There are so many different kind of businesses in the Center, so they can see a lot of different jobs: retail jobs, marketing jobs, accounting jobs, banking jobs, and different things they can do," Golden said.

The program aims to show kids "what's behind the door," DeVitto said. "At that age, they're familiar with walking into a restaurant. But they have no idea that the restaurant is really equivalent to a manufacturing facility… What are all the things that go into making that happen?"

The students will be chosen by a Hall business teacher. The program will run from 8:45 a.m. to 1 p.m.